I always thought John Street was mean. I voted for him once, but only because the Republicans made constitutional discrimination against gay and lesbian families an official part of their platform, and I felt like I had no choice after George Bush had stolen the presidency, twice. At least JS stopped acting on his own bigotry in the 90s after the city passed domestic partnership legislation with a clear majority. He realized that if he was going to survive politically, he had to stop bashing the gays and lesbians.

He hasn't had a similar change of behavior when it comes to firefighters, rescue workers, and police officers who have been infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) while doing their jobs. [Everyone knows that I'm no big fan of police states {except for the beach in Delaware where I like to go on vacation and don't mind not having to lock my tent or bike or get runned over by a car}, but I have had more than a few interactions with individual Philly cops, some in which I may have had a few beers or been driving like I was playing Grand Theft Auto, and they always treated me very fairly.] It's sad that the legislature had to enact a law forcing the city to pay to right this wrong. To this day, the mayor's spokespeople insist that leaving people like Mary Kohler out in the cold is the mayor's "fiduciary responsibility." The mayor himself can't be bothered to "follow that."